Race At The Mall

"Brooklyn's Fulton Street Mall was once an elegant retail strip that now appears to consist of leftover and surplus inventory: a forlorn Macy's, a Conway, three Payless Shoe Sources, two Foot Lockers and a Kids Foot Locker."

"The shoppers are largely black. But in order not to talk about race, here's a glossary for civilized discussion about improving the Fulton Street Mall:

Area residents: largely white, largely upper-middle-class residents of Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Fort Greene...

Local constituents: see 'area residents.'

Non-users: people who don't shop at the mall.

Underutilized: Area residents and local constituents are non-users.

In the constraints of that syllogism, the issue of race is both difficult to raise and impossible to avoid. When people speak of developing Soho-style lofts in the upper stories of the buildings fronting the mall, or of bringing restaurants like those on Boerum Hill's Smith Street to the mall's side streets, or of bringing large office buildings to the area, it's hard not to imagine the cultural character of the shopping district being transformed beyond recognition. It would certainly mean more white people."